Mosaic Minutes

I hope your children enjoyed our first class as much as I did. It is a wonderful group of children, and I look forward to getting to know them all better.

At our introductory class on Monday, we touched on story telling by telling a continuing story using Rory's Story Cubes. If you have never used these at home, I highly recommend them. It is surprisingly difficult to tell a story from the cubes. My children are much better at it than I am! The students each made a cube of their own. Please ask them to bring these back next week so that we can use them together in class. I have attached the template so that you can make more cubes at home if you would like. We also read the title story in Ted Hughes's How the Whale Became.

We began to learn basic facts about the earth, continents, and the globe using a variety of atlases as references. The students will work on developing their research skills each week, using reference books. We talked about Pangaea, and Plate Tectonics. These websites offer some simple activities if you are interested in following up at home.

Homework each week is optional. It will deepen their understanding of the material we cover in class, but is not meant as a burden. The children will not be reprimanded in class if they do not do the homework.

This week's homework is quite simple. They have a sheet of questions regarding their own interests and preferences. It will help me to get to know them better, as well as to assess their interests and writing skills. I also sent home a sheet of information about Babylon, to give them some background before we begin reading The Epic of Gilgamesh. You can also watch an animated version of the Babylonian creation myth at The Big Myth. If you have an atlas with information about Ancient Mesopotamia, please have your student bring it to class.